“He did not say, as one who has never smoked crack cocaine might say, ‘I have never smoked crack cocaine,'” Cook writes.

“He said he does not smoke crack cocaine, which is the sort of thing that someone who woke up this morning and decided to stop smoking crack cocaine might say, on the grounds that it’s not presently untrue.”

While the mayor did not take any questions, his brother, Councillor Doug Ford, blamed the entire controversy on “one news source” — the Toronto Star — in a testy statement after his brother’s.

“There is one news organization that accused and has an accusation of a video that does not exist, or we haven’t seen, very simple,” he said, as reporters pointed out that two news organizations have made the allegations.

Doug Ford then took several questions from reporters, although he abruptly stopped taking questions when asked about Gawker. Instead he attacked the website’s attempt to crowdsource the purchase of the video.

“I think it is disgusting . . . That an organization like Gawker would go out there and deal with a bunch of extortionists, a bunch of Somali drug dealers,” he said. “I puts a real tarnish on a great community, the Somali community.”

Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker (Ward 38 – Scarborough Centre) said the mayor lied throughout his statement Friday and said Ford has to resign.

“You don’t have legitimacy to run this government anymore,” he said was his message to Ford. “His tenure is over. The mayor should resign and get some help for himself and his family.

“Take care of yourself. Take care of your family. But he is unable to govern the city anymore,” he said. “The statements he has made are so offensive on so many levels that his tenure as mayor is effectively over.”

Mayor Ford thanked Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday for his support. He also thanked Towhey for his service “and all the work that he has done.”